


Outlive

by Breezling



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Ripper Street
Genre: (Almost) Everyone is a victor, Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Gen, Multi, Victorsverse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-05
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-09-28 09:23:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10085558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Breezling/pseuds/Breezling
Summary: They are all victors at their own games. Some unlikely, some expected. Some by skill, some by luck.The only thing that brings them together is their will to outlive their circunstances.They survive.





	1. 48th Hunger Games - Bennet Drake - District 12

**48th Hunger Games - Bennet Drake - District 12**

 

When his name is called during the reaping, Bennet simply sighs as the rest of the boys let out their breaths. He has no family and is near 17 so he knows no one will take his place. He walks slowly to the stage, a clear contrast to the female tribute, who cries when pried away from her family.

 

He thinks it’s very ironical that this is the first time on his life the odds seem to be on his favor. 

 

He is an orphan from the poorest district with nothing to lose. His mother, if the people who raised him are to be trusted, was an alcoholic whore, his father unknown. So far, his life has been a convoluted mess of foster homes, street fights and digging graves at the local graveyard.

 

_ At least dying in the games will be faster. _

 

Bennet is clearly unimpressed by the luxury of the Capitol. His stylist annoys him to death with her insistence of him being shirtless and covered in stupid black ink designs that take hours to make (even though he is clearly found of the lion headed woman on his forearm… she tells him it’s some ancient goddess. He doesn’t care). 

 

On his first day at the training center, he feels that his luck begins to change. 

 

The career boys decided to pick a fight with the kids from the “lesser” districts. When Maurice Linklater, the kid from 10, has his nose broken by the boy from two only because he was “staring”, a fire awakes inside him.

 

A new reaping almost has to take place amongst the boys from 1, given that the Capitol doctors nearly refused to send the boy to the games. 

 

His interview is utterly dull. He was never a man of many words.

 

His private training session is a completely different matter.

 

A peacekeeper has to forcibly remove him from the punching bag he managed to make to shreds.He scores a 10 and knows it’s almost like he has a target drawn on his back.

 

The arena is a large wooded area. A creek sings somewhere in the distance.

 

_ It would be beautiful if he wasn’t there to die. _

 

He runs from the bloodbath and takes a knife the girl from one carved on the back of the boy from 6. It will help him survive by finding food on the forest - not much different from what he did back on 12 when it was that or going to bed hungry - and hides at night.

 

He makes it out of the bloodbath. Then there are only 12 of them left. Then six. Then four - thanks to him. Then two.

 

It’s between him and the boy from 2. Jedediah Shine, he later learned. They have no weapons left, just brawls and fists.

 

Shine seems to be waiting for revenge. He beats him within an inch of his life and is nearly the victor. But the odds were in Bennet’s favor and his arrogant rival decided to brag too near of a cliff. 

 

All it takes is a small push for District 12 to get its first victor.

  
It doesn’t feel like winning. At all.


	2. 52nd Hunger Games - Edmund Reid - District 3

**52nd Hunger Games - Edmund Reid - District 3**

 

Edmund knows that, while the odds are not on his favor, there might still be hope. 

 

Fred Abberline, his mentor, already brought two kids back from the games.He is not the smallest tribute, but definitely not the strongest. His only combat skills come from some schoolyard brawls, which he usually preferred to avoid but always managed to stand his ground on. He knows how to make a fire from sticks and stones and might be able to fish if there is a creek avaliable. 

 

_ Not the best, but not the worst either. Still allowed to hope.  _

 

Every few years, the game makers decide to shake things up and make the games slightly less rigged in favor of the career districts by either making it a survival test or a brain challenge. 

 

_ That’s how games are won in three. Not on strength, but on brains. _

 

He watches carefully for clues about what might wait for him at the arena. Careers should not be his first concern. With a little bit of luck their greed and a little help from exposure might skin that particular rabbit for him. The younger, weaker kids from lesser districts are also not a concern… he will not try to hurry the inevitable. 

 

He focus on the people who can be his match. 

 

_ The ones who will not go down without a fight, even if they are not sure they will win.  _

He wonders if anyone else has the same plan.

 

As the interviews roll around, Edmund watches them keenly, his own responses calculated to give the audience the least of his mind. Openness is a luxury he is not allowed at the games. 

 

He hides his strengths. And his weaknesses.

 

The host calls him “District Three’s Enigma” - it was flattery but he reluctantly likes it. 

 

When he enters the arena, it’s only through all his self control that he is able to hide his smile.

 

_ Those are games he can win. _

 

A maze with moving walls, deep pits, points with hidden supplies and horrible mutations lies open ahead of him, ready to be solved.

 

He navigates the maze alone, noticing that the moving walls leave small marks when their places change, that the easiest paths lead to danger while the harder ones are where you could find hidden supplies.

 

After the first couple of days, he goes through motions in the Game like an elaborated routine. Wake, find food, avoid danger, find shelter, sleep, repeat. 

 

His first killing, the boy from 6, comes as a blessing in his dull days. The second one, the girl from 9, happens a couple of days later and killing also becomes a mechanical process. 

 

Every cannon ball shot brings him closer to the end. Either of the games or his life.

 

In the end, the answer comes to Edmund Reid in the shape of nitric acid, courtesy of some sponsor cleverly advised by his mentor, and a battery. 

 

He rips the shirt he removed from the dead body of the boy from 8, his first smile in days upon his lips. _“Fred, you smart bastard”_ he thinks as he sets up his plan.

 

The final career tributes are hurdled in a protected corner of the maze for the night. Reid slowly approaches them, barefoot so he will be a silent as possible. The small shreds of fabric hidden everywhere in their shelter. 

 

He runs and hides.

 

The noise of the gun cotton explosion leaves a ringing on his ears for weeks after the games and some of the debris he was not able to avoid leave a nasty burn scar on his shoulder.

 

_ No one leaves their games whole.  _

As he returns back home, he thinks about the catchy games slogan. Sometimes, you have to turn the odds to your favor. 


End file.
